Thanks, Aliya! Yeah, I think the chase works OK. By final con­front­a­tion do you mean the bit where Hartfield reveals his dast­ardly plan (and oth­er twists)? Yes, the American diner is a little bor­ing as a place to set a scene. I might try for some­where a little more excit­ing (pity Rushmore has been done!)

Yes, the Hartfield bit — sorry, am going from memory! Re the diner, I don’t know if it needs to be an inter­est­ing place, just that you need to slow it down and swing it back to char­ac­ter — maybe he could look at the oth­er people more, observe con­ver­sa­tions, think about his own life — I just get the feel­ing we need to see real life again there to remind us of the abnor­mal exper­i­ence he’s going through.

Hmm! That cer­tainly ties in with one of my more neb­u­lous bul­let points, which is to give the read­er (and the char­ac­ters) a bit of space in which to absorb all the crazy stuff that’s going on. Thanks, Aliya.